“Yes, yes; I understand you. Why, sir, we have no _peasants_ in this country; _all are gentlemen_.” “I abhor such a democratic notion. Only see how rudely your people talk about the President of the United States. He is called Mr. Jackson, Old Jackson, Old Hickory. In Europe, we call the king, His Majesty. Don’t you see the difference?” “I see the difference. The people of this country have little respect for titles, and I am thankful for it; but they have great respect for _man_; so much that they deem every man a sovereign; and I hope they will never make such fools of themselves as to single out one of their number, perhaps the biggest gump in the land, and bow down and worship him, and like cringing slaves, call him ‘His Majesty.’ God only is worthy the title of Majesty.” In the cars near Baltimore, I had some conversation with a lawyer, concerning slavery. “Are you going South?” he inquired. “To Maryland. Am from the East, and was never as far south or west before.” “As you are going into a slave-holding state, I should like to know your views of slavery.” “In principle I think it is wrong; but I know little of its practical effects. I shall be better able to judge of it practically at some future time.” “Morally I regard it wrong; nearly all the Southern people so view it. But that slavery is a benefit to the blacks, there can be no doubt. As an evidence of this, contrast the condition of the negroes in Africa with their condition in the Southern states. In this country they are far better off than their brethren are in Africa.” “They doubtless are in some respects, but I am not sure that slavery has improved them. Living in this country, and associating, to some extent, with a superior race, has improved them; but I cannot admit that slavery has done it. You admit slavery to be an evil, and we have the best authority for asserting, that an evil tree cannot produce good fruit. It seems to me that you condemn slavery in _principle_ and _practice_ when you admit it to be an evil. What effect do you think it has on the whites?” “Decidedly a beneficial effect. There is more refinement and high-toned character in the slave states than in the free states. The people in the South have leisure to cultivate the better sentiments of their nature.” “I repeat, you must be mistaken. If slavery is a upas tree--is an evil as you admit--it cannot produce such heavenly fruit. It is not true that the Southern people are more intelligent, moral and refined than the Eastern people. Statistics, from which there can be no appeal, show that there are more school houses, academies, colleges and meeting houses in the East, than in the South, in proportion to the population. There are more persons in Virginia, the best of the slave states, who cannot read or write, than there are in six of the most Eastern states. Facts are against you.”